This blog runs parallel to a new poetry blog 'Poetry Pinfold' (poetrypinfold.blogspot.com), and a new blog with poems in Dutch (bartnooteboomgedichten.blogspot.com)

Sunday, November 15, 2015

226. A basis for independence

An old debate on basic income is being revived, in Europe. In item 154
of this blog I discussed the arguments and uncertainties involved, and I will
not repeat them here. The arguments are both social and economic. Here I want
to add a ‘deeper’, philosophical argument.

In different ways, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, Lacan, and
Onfray strove to liberate the individual from the hold of social systems.
Unleashing will to power, Nietzsche proposed. Getting away from ‘das Man’,
Heidegger said. ‘Creating one’s life as a work of art’, Foucault proposed. Sculpt
yourself, Onfray proposedDeconstructing
the established order, Derrida said. Stepping out into ‘jouissance’ of reality outside
the symbolic order, Lacan urged..

In the preceding item I offered entrepreneurship as an opening for
rebellion, in creative destruction, as an element of capitalism. But there are
limitations to this. I mentioned that corporate capitalism tries to muscle out
genuine entrepreneurship. But also, not all people have the guts and the
stomach for it. And is the breathless momentum of creative destruction to be
maintained continually? Is there no need for stability next or in addition to
change? I will later dedicate a series of items to that question.

A basic income provides a basis for independence and personal agency. It
is an unconditional cash benefit for all
people above a certain age, regardless of further income or capital. It frees
recipients of social benefits from the ‘poverty trap’: the fact that any
additional earned income is taxed for 100% (surrendering the benefit when
finding work). The scheme may seem off the wall to many readers, and
unrealistically expensive, requiring an unacceptable rise of taxes. That is not
necessarily the case, but I will not argue that here (see item 154).

In the present context the point is that a basic income strengthens the
power of a worker with respect to his/her employer, since in case of injustice
or mistreatment he/she can exit and fall back on the basic income. It improves
the worker’s bargaining position by offering a basis for independence.

One might argue that this is a double-edged sword, since it also makes
it easier for employers to fire employees, easing the qualms about sending
someone into unemployment. But there seem to be few such qualms anyway, and
presently unemployment benefits already take away any qualms that may be there.

Basic income also facilitates entrepreneurship as an escape, since it provides
the funds to tide over the difficult period of setting up an enterprise,
without income from work, and difficulties in obtaining funds from banks or
investors before one has developed a demonstrably viable prototype of a new
product or service.

It enables exit as an artist, or to provide unpaid or low-paid social
support that is no longer offered in public health.

Another economic point that I did not mention before is the following.
After digitalization of music, books and film, it has become hard for their
makers to appropriate the returns from them as income. As more activities
become digital, his phenomenon will spread. To maintain the production of such
things the makers need another source of income. Basic income may become
inevitable for that reason as well.

To deepen the philosophical argument, I go back here to the tension
between ethics and justice discussed in item 224. A basic income yields more
scope for a Levinassian ethic of dedication to the humanity, the ‘face’ of the
other, with less pressure for exploitation and rivalry, while it is also an
item of justice, in its universal application to all, as an unconditional
benefit.

As an element of justice it has also been justified as a ‘social
dividend’, a return on the various forms of capital that have accumulated, as a
shared heritage, over many generations, at the cost of much blood and toil.
Think of the rule of law, democracy, culture, science, technology, and physical
infrastructure of roads, railways, etc. Entrepreneurs pride themselves on their
achievements as if those were entirely their own, while in fact they have built
their success on leveraging this joint heritage from which others also deserve
a return.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Poetry blog

Poems posted on Poetrypinfold.blogspot.comComing down (a memory of Genevaa) NightYin and YangPoetry pinfoldSiëstaDown and out in the mindThe stream bears light (the Nasrid palace at the Alhambra)From one to many Sunday in GoudaOn the canalStanzas of stone (San Gimignano, torre grosso)The words have a ballNo rocket scienceMontreuxNew roomGenerationsSister (Paris)MotherMother 2Blessed solitudeCivil servantAdolescent lamentThe streamTender rip-offNight 2BirdsAtlas unmovedSeminar on KrakmaroDiplomacyDepositionWinter train in ThuringenSarajevoFar aheadHat trick on the canalFlowers of deathOn a camping one night

top 100 blog award

awarded October 2016

Bundles of blog

On my website (www.bartnooteboom.nl) I offer selected items from the blog, bundled according to theme, such as:basic incomea way out for socialism? identity, cultureevolution multiple causalityGod and religionrobots

powerknowledge, truth and inventionethics and moralitythe human conditionself and othertrustmeaning

Eastern and Western philosophypuzzles in philosophydemocracy, autocracy, and fascismvoice and exitNietzsche, nihilism and beyondTime, duration, and discontinuity: Bergson, Derrida, and Bachelardsystem tragedy

power, Foucaultsix more pieces on FoucaultLevinasMontaigneHeideggerBaudrillardWittgensteinZizek and Hegel